well, nelson mandela did. in -- he has since become the executive editor of the newspaper. full disclosure here, i was a media reporter at the time, which means bill was my boss for several years, he is now a columnist and i spoke with him in new york. bill, thanks to be here. >> it's nice to be here. you were able to interview nelson mandela for his obituary on one condition, and what was that condition? >> the condition was that we didn't call it an obituary interview, in fact we didn't call it an interview at all. it's a fairly common thing in the news business, that you interview a subject in his advanced obituary, in the hopes that he would say things he wouldn't be so comfortable saying things he wouldn't say in this life. reporters think it's a perfectly normal thing to do. some think it's kind of creepy. mandela's people thought it was incomprehensible. we wouldn't call it an interview, we would call it a visit for old times sake, i brought along my 10-year-old daughter who was with me in south africa. we were allowed to take notes, but no taping and we chatted for